Lily asked a very good question on another post: “What’s the birth order of the Woodcutter siblings?”

Obviously, Monday-Sunday are easy to figure out. It’s one of the reasons I liked using those names–with so many daughters in a family, I could have easily confused my readers. But what about the boys?

At one point during a copyedit of Enchanted, I was forced to change the age of Prince Rumbold, which then changed a lot of the timing references throughout the story. I was forced to make an Excel spreadsheet of the Woodcutter children, with birth dates and ages that each of them where when certain events happened in their lives (Tuesday’s death, Monday’s marriage, Jack Junior’s disappearance, etc).

My good friend Eric James Stone helped me put something together, and I’ve used that grid ever since. I wont’ share the full grid with you (because I still want plausible deniability if I screw something up in the future), but here are the Woodcutter Siblings–brothers and sisters–listed in birth order (including Trix).

Harcourt had some big reorganization and everyone who ever worked on the Woodcutters left the company. In a way, getting dumped was a blessing–few authors have positive experiences working with a new editor after they’ve been “orphaned.”

It also paved the way for a project I’d pitched that they’d turned down: Writing a short novel based on what happened to Trix in Hero (a storyline they made me remove from the book entirely because “pacing”).

My goal was to finish Trix’s novel and use it to teach myself all the ways of this new-fangled “indie publishing.” I had launched my own small press back in 2005 (Nyx Books), but a lot had changed in the decade since I’d dipped my toe in the print-on-demand business. I did have a leg up, having owned a publishing company before and having a ton of contacts in the industry…but that also made it scarier. Because I knew just what I was getting myself into, and the superior level of quality I expected from my books.

And let’s be honest: mentally, after getting dumped, I felt like a Giant Failure. Plus, remember how 2014 was the year that a bunch of my close friends and family kept dying?

Yeah. One doesn’t exactly snap back from that.

It took a while to get off the ground, but eventually Trixter was published, along with Tales of Arilland (the fairy tale short story collection I’d pitched and gotten rejected) and a few other things. I even wrote a sequel called Trix and the Faerie Queen — not something I’d originally planned, but a plotline I realize I LOVED.

I started writing Thieftess (Thursday’s book). I even had a model do a photo shoot for Thursday’s cover. (Yes, we still have those pics. She is SO Thursday!)

I wanted to get myself on better financial ground before I completely threw myself into writing the rest of the series. It takes a lot of head space to get into a series like the Woodcutters, and anxieties like “bills” and “utilities” and “credit card debt” and “car repairs” really chip away at that space. (I still have no car, btw. Haven’t for over a year.)

What I found out was: continuing to write in the world of Arilland wasn’t making me significant money. The reason? I don’t have the rights to the first three books. I can’t put them on sale, or make the first one permafree. I can’t offer them up for Bookbub deals.

I make 89.9 cents on every paperback copy of Enchanted sold (as opposed to $2-3 on each indie book sold). I get that money twice a year. And those books aren’t selling particularly well. Enchanted, Hero, and Dearest combined pull in about $2000 every six months. That’s not nearly enough to live on. The up side is, once the sales of those books fall below a certain threshold, I can have the rights back.

So you see my dilemma.

When I get my rights back for Enchanted, Hero, and Dearest, here is the plan:

–Reprint all of the books, with better covers. (I’ll keep the titles, because we’re in this too far to change them now.)

–Release an “author’s preferred edition” of Enchanted, that puts back in most of the 30,000 words the publisher asked me to take out. (A lot of this is about Prince Rumbold, which was published in Tales of Arilland as “The Cursed Prince.” A lot are deleted scenes I read on YouTube.)

–Audible is still interested in producing the rest of the series. My heart is beyond broken that my dearest Katy Kellgren won’t be able to perform the rest of them. But I would definitely point them in Gabrielle Baker’s direction, after her stellar performance of Tales of Arilland.

What I am doing right now: I am writing.

I spent years teaching myself every aspect of indie publishing…and realized the hard way that I’d taken the wrong road by pursuing the Woodcutters. I ended 2016 broke, desperate, and still writing like mad.

I threw everything I had into my career, pulled out all the stops. Thus my recent (and awesome!) endeavors in Nocturne Falls, the “Once” anthologies, and The Simi’s ABCs book.

I also have plans to start a new series–comedy romance, like the books I write for NFU, but obviously more fairy tale based. In fact, I’ve seeded a bunch of characters and worldbuilding into my NFU books already…

Yes. I would like to at least finish Book Three of The Trix Adventures (Trix and the Fire Witch), but as of the writing of this post, my life is All Nocturne Falls All the Time. And traveling with Sherri. And narrating stories for ACX and IGMS. And doing about a thousand other things to try and bring in every penny I can, because I know how fickle this industry is, and I’m still not standing on financially solid ground.

So there you have it. The very long (and mildly depressing) answer.

I would love to be able to write the rest of the Woodcutter Sisters books. As a terminal optimist, I believe that one day, I will be able to. YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

I know you’re dutifully following and sharing all the guest bloggers and reviewers of the Trix and the Faerie Queen Blog Tour…but do make sure that you’re following me on ALL THE SOCIAL MEDIA and entering the Prize Pack Giveaway as many times as you can.

Only nine days left!

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April 2 2016

Today is 211th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. Choosing this day to launch the blog tour for Trix and the Faerie Queen was due more to the happenstance of timing than by design, but in hindsight I cannot think of a better time. As I write this, I am sitting in the Aerie of Phoenix Farm. Across from me is the desk where Jane Yolen wrote some of the books that shaped my youth. The walls that aren’t filled with fairy tale collections are lined with wings and witches, maids and mermen. Out across the cloudy gray landscape dotted with the greens and yellows of impatient spring, the church bells chime into the twilight. The house is full of dreamers ready to write the next generation of beautiful books that shape the next generation of impressionable youths. Jane has challenged us all to make the world a better place. I accept that challenge.

Whether or not I succeed is up to you, dear reader.

Trix Woodcutter and I invite you all to join us on this newest adventure. Trix and the Faerie Queen is filled with more talking animals than I ever thought I would write and a journey to a place from my dreams: Under the Hill, to the high seat of the Faerie Queen. There are so many characters in this story (Alastair is going to hurt me when he starts making notes for the audio)–I won’t tell you which one is my favorite. That is a choice you must make yourself.

I could say more about Trix’s story, but I think perhaps I will let the all the wonderful excerpts and reviews posted along this tour speak for themselves. Plus, Jane has just sat down beside me to chat (Jane says hi, by the way), and Heidi will be calling us all down to dinner soon.

Hey, everybody! I’m officially home from Jane Yolen’s Picture Book Boot Camp…which means I got in late Sunday night and then spent an entire day in bed in excruciating pain (this whole neck thing is *not* my idea of a good time). I’ll be posting pics here in the near future…and maybe some thoughts…it’s just that everything that happened was so magical and surreal that I don’t know if I know words good enough to explain it. And even if I did, I feel like I should be spending that time working on ALL THE IDEAS I had while I was there! I mean, that was the whole point of going, right? You guys want new picture books from me, RIGHT? Well, hold on to your hats…

My dearest Tressa over at Wishful Endings is currently hosting the Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon. But you know all about that by now, right? Of course you do! (Quick! Sign up through September 23rd here.)

Today on the schedule is solely dedicated to MOI, and to celebrate I am giving away a copy of Trixter! As you know, Trix is the precocious foundling little brother of the infamous Woodcutter Sisters. His antics were the whole reason that Hero happened in the first place…and now he has his own series of adventures! If you’re not familiar with his story, find out a more below, and then don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Trix Woodcutter is the long prophesied Boy Who Talks to Animals. Heís also a foundling prankster scamp who places his family under a sleeping spell so that he can run away from home. Compelled by a vision of his dead birthmother, Trix departs on the eve of a Great Catastrophe, only to find himself caught in the maelstrom. Armed with little more than his wits and the wisdom inherent in all fey-blooded youth, Trix confronts a legendary Animal King, faces off against a ghostly feline, rescues a damsel in distress, and discovers more about himself than he ever wished to know.